An eye-opening, urgent look behind an official screen of lies.
The pseudonymous Larkin (Finding George Orwell in Burma, 2005) exposes a totalitarian regime's obstacles to relief and recovery after the devastating cyclone of May 2, 2008.
Because of her pseudonym and her skill at disguising her frequent visits to Myanmar—the country officially changed its name from Burma, although the author persists in using the British designation—the Bangkok-based American journalist was able to penetrate the veil of secrecy surrounding the catastrophic damage of Cyclone Nargis. Satellite photos revealed that it had “significantly altered the landscape and must have caused substantial damage,” yet the official acknowledgement of the storm by the country's leader Gen. Than Shwe was slow to emerge, and the government obstructed the relief efforts of the UN and other international-aid agencies. Larkin traces these early frantic efforts to distribute aid in spite of the government's resistance and obfuscation—no pictures of the damage were allowed in “the regime's de facto mouthpiece,” the New Light of Myanmar, as the censors deemed them “negative.” The author attributes this recalcitrance to the military regime's paranoia at being invaded. The official death toll was released on May 17 (77,738 dead 55,917 missing), but the author was unsure about the sourcing of the statistics. As there was no reliable news available, Larkin often relied on rumors (“Finding reliable sources of information in Burma has always been difficult”). The middle section of the book is a fascinating examination of the 20-year iron rule of the reclusive Than, who ascended the military ranks and effectively keeps the country together through fear of insurgents and invaders. He abruptly moved the capital to Naypyidaw, keeps the opposition and monks jailed so there is no one to vote or demonstrate against him and operates under the guidance of astrology. Once again Larkin does a fine job exposing injustice in this impoverished, deeply troubled pocket of the world.
An eye-opening, urgent look behind an official screen of lies.Pub Date: May 3, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59420-257-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
